Power Dynamics in Gold Supply Chains: A political ecology perspective on the access to the gold and mercury market in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector in Burkina Faso

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Master Thesis

Power Dynamics in Gold Supply Chains

A political ecology perspective on the access to the gold and mercury market in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector in Burkina Faso

Author(s):

Bugmann, Anna Andrea Publication Date:

2020-03

Permanent Link:

https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000450774

Rights / License:

In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted

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Master’s degree programme in Environmental Sciences

Power Dynamics in Gold Supply Chains

A political ecology perspective on the access to the gold and mercury market in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector in Burkina Faso

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Wehrli, bernhard.wehrli@env.ethz.ch Dep. of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich

Co-Supervisor: Dr. Fritz Brugger, fritz.brugger@nadel.ethz.ch

Dep. of Humanities, Social and Pol. Sc. (NADEL) at ETH Zurich

Anna Bugmann (14-407-282)

March 2020

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Tout d’abord, je tiens à remercier chaque minier artisanal, ainsi que toutes les autres personnes interrogées qui ont consacré leur précieux temps pour répondre à mes questions.

Sans leur bonne volonté, ce mémoire n’aurait pas vu le jour.

Un grand merci aussi à Zongo Tongnoma ainsi qu’à Hermann Konkobo, Mohamed Dagano, Issaka Sawadogo, Salif Sawadogo et Issac Kondombo pour avoir rendu possible la collecte de données sur les sites miniers. J’aimerais également remercier Martin Yameogo, mon grand frère burkinabè, pour m’avoir ouvert un grand nombre de portes à Ouagadougou, notamment en me donnant accès à la majorité des données récoltées dans la capitale. Merci aussi à Sam Barthélémy, Natacha Compaoré, Ben Blumenthal et Amina Yanogo pour leur chaleureuse hospitalité grâce à laquelle je me suis sentie bien accueillie au Burkina Faso dès les premiers jours.

Du côté Suisse, j’aimerais avant tout remercier Fritz Brugger pour sa disponibilité permanente et pour ses précieux conseils tant au niveau pratique ainsi que théorique. Merci aussi à Antoinette van der Merwe qui m’a initialement permis de faire mon mémoire au sein du NADEL, et qui m’a accompagnée moralement tout le long du processus, notamment pendant la gestion de la récolte de données sur les sites miniers. Je tiens également à remercier Bernhard Wehrli pour son encadrement du côté D-USYS.

Enfin, j’aimerais remercier Laurence, David, Jérémie, John, Thomas, Selina, Jessica, Sarah, Karin, Harald et Margrit qui m’ont soutenue de différentes manières à de nombreux stades de ce projet. Merci d’avoir été là pour moi et de m’avoir encouragée – à tout moment.

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Preface

Commodity trade is a major feature of the Swiss economy, including a diverse range of products such as oil, agricultural commodities, metals and minerals (SECO, 2018). Among these commodities, gold plays a particularly important role as 67% of global production is traded through Switzerland (SECO, 2018) and refined in the country by four of the seven biggest gold companies worldwide (Pieth, 2019).

More or less formalized, the gold sector consists of industrial large-scale gold mining (LSGM) and informal and often illegal artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). On the one hand, the latter is characterized by important financial benefits for a large number of people. But on the other hand, it is also widely noted for issues such as high accident rates, environmental pollution, human rights violations, land dispossession, corruption, smuggling, drug use and prostitution (SECO, 2018). Whereas many Swiss companies increasingly prefer to buy from industrial mines in order to avoid such risks, this strategy does not help to improve the working conditions of ASGM miners, who depend heavily on this source of income (SECO, 2018). The situation highlights the importance of enhancing the willingness of Swiss consumers and companies to demand ASGM commodities which have been sourced responsibly (SECO, 2018). This objective is in line with the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, which Switzerland supports.

In 2013, the Federal Council started to recognize the risks associated with the lucrative gold industry and highlighted the importance of higher standards (Federal Customs Administration, 2013), subsequently focusing on constructive dialogues between the Federal Administration, commodity firms, civil society organizations and Swiss universities (SECO, 2018). In addition, the Swiss Better Gold Initiative (BGI) has been launched as a partnership between the private sector and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and it is currently active in Peru, Columbia and Bolivia.

Despite the current undertakings, the gold sector is still shaped by a lack of transparency and accountability (Fastenopfer & Brot für alle, 2016; Public Eye, 2015), hence the need to increase national and international efforts to make the gold trade more socially and environmentally sustainable (SECO, 2018). This Master’s thesis therefore aims to contribute

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to the goal of enhancing transparency and traceability in the gold sector by providing insights into ASGM supply chains in Burkina Faso. Given that Switzerland is believed to refine up to 90% of the gold sourced in Burkina Faso (Fastenopfer & Brot für alle, 2016), research in this context becomes even more relevant from a Swiss perspective.

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Abstract

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is both an important livelihood strategy for millions of people in rural areas and the leading source of mercury pollution globally.

Although the Minamata Convention, established by the United Nations in 2017, addresses this challenge, the frequent use of mercury as an extractive tool for gold still persists. Among the explanations for the continuing use of mercury, the importance of trade dynamics has remained poorly researched so far. This Master’s thesis thus provides insights into power relations in ASGM supply chains in Burkina Faso by taking a political ecology perspective based on access concepts in combination with a risk framework for supply networks. A total of 64 interviews in Ouagadougou and on four ASGM sites in the North of Burkina Faso as well as 267 survey results from the same target sites have been collected for the analysis. On the one hand, the results of this mixed-methods approach shed light on the dual function of the gold collectors who are also the mercury providers. They show that the gold collectors mainly secure the mercury supply chain in order to increase their access to the gold market. On the other hand, the study discusses the distribution of capital and ASGM-typical risks along the gold and mercury supply chain and how they impact the trade dynamics on the sites, mainly via pre-financing mechanisms. These findings challenge the common perception of ASGMers as poverty-driven individual entrepreneurs and highlight the role of financially strong investors, who seek cheap labour opportunities in order to derive profits from the markets.

The identification of power dynamics in different forms and at different stages of the gold and mercury supply chain fills both an empirical and a theoretical research gap. Moreover, it may contribute to finding innovative solutions to drive the transition towards a mercury-free ASGM sector.

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Acronyms

ANEEMAS Agence Nationale d’Encadrement pour l’Exploitation Minière Artisanale et Semi-Méchanisée

ASGM Artisanal and small-scale gold mining BNAF Brigade Nationale Anti-Fraude

CBMP Comptoir Burkinabè des Métaux Précieux

DEMAS Direction de l’Exploitation Minière Artisanale et Semi-Méchanisée DGPE Direction Générale de la Préservation de l’Environnement

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States LSGM Large-scale gold mining

UN United Nations

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Index of figures

Figure 1: My own illustration of the different steps within the gold extraction process in ASGM, based on O’Neill and Telmer (2017). ... 5 Figure 2: Simplified representation of African gold supply chains. Source: Hunter (2019). ... 14 Figure 3: Map of mercury and gold flows in West Africa. Source: Global Initiative, 2018. ... 16 Figure 4: My own illustration of "A Theory of Access" by Ribot and Peluso (2003). The eight forms of access determine which actors can benefit from a resource (winners) or not (losers). ... 25 Figure 5: Map of Burkina Faso with study area in red. Source: United Nations (2018). Map No. 4230 Rev. 1, Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/burkina.pdf. ... 34 Figure 6: Percentage of people completing different tasks on the mine out of a survey sample of 237 individuals. The individuals could choose multiple answers. ... 38 Figure 7: My own illustration of the distribution of capital along the gold and mercury supply chain. ... 79 Figure 8: My own illustration of the distribution of risks along the gold and mercury supply chain. ... 80 Figure 9: My own illustration of identified actors who are involved in the gold supply chain in ASGM in Burkina Faso. ... 88 Figure 10: My own illustration of identified actors who are involved in the mercury supply chain in ASGM in Burkina Faso. ... 89

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Index of tables

Table 1: Choice of types of risk and associated losses relevant for ASGM, based on Harland et al. (2003). ... 29 Table 2: Interviews with actors on ASGM sites, December 2019/January 2020. ... 36 Table 3: Logit regressions showing the likelihood of using of mercury if a digger, a pit owner or a gold buyer (n = 276). The variable is binary, distinguishing between the following two answers: “Yes I used mercury during the last month” and “no I did not use mercury during the last month.” ... 45 Table 4: Logit with an interaction showing the likelihood of trading mercury if a pit owner versus a digger (n = 169). The interaction was added because some people indicated to be both pit owners and diggers and it thus helps to distinguish the two groups. ... 47 Table 5: Logit regression showing the price difference between the three target sites (n = 124). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 48 Table 6: Linear regression comparing the price for mercury between the tree target sites (n=127). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 55 Table 7: Linear regression showing the correlation between the gold price and the fact that the gold buyer is also the mercury provider (n=153 for Au and n = 126 for Hg). ... 57 Table 8: Different strategies to sell gold without paying taxes. Source: Interviews in Ouagadougou in November/December 2019. ... 67 Table 9: Selection of statements from trading companies in regard to their involvement in mercury trade. ... 76 Table 10: Survey responses for question A2 in percentage (left) and in absolute numbers (right) (n = 301). ... 124 Table 11: Survey responses for question A3. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 124 Table 12: Survey responses for question B1. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 125 Table 13: Survey responses for question B4. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 125 Table 14: Survey responses for question B8. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 126 Table 15: Survey responses for question D2. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 126 Table 16: Survey responses for question D3. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 151). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 127

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Table 17: Survey responses for question D5. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 127 Table 18: Survey responses for question D0.1. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 128 Table 19: Survey responses for question D0.4. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 124). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 128 Table 20: Survey responses for question D0.5. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 168). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 129 Table 21: Survey responses for question D7. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 130 Table 22: Survey responses for question D0.6. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 124). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 131 Table 23: Survey responses for question D0.7. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 168). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 131 Table 24: Survey responses for question D1.1. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 276). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 132 Table 25: Survey responses for question D2.5. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 182). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 301). ... 132 Table 26: Survey responses for question D2.5.1. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 140). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 133 Table 27: Survey responses for question D2.6. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 140). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 133 Table 28: Survey responses for question D2.7. Left: percentage of individuals who answered the question with other than “no response” (n = 140). Right: absolute number of individuals (n = 237). Sandouré as a pilot site could not be considered for this part of the quantitative analysis. ... 134

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1. Introduction

Mercury plays a key role in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) as it is used by the majority of miners to extract gold from the ore (UNIDO, 2019). It is considered as a

“chemical of global concern” (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017, p. 31), not only because of its severe health impacts (Steckling et al., 2017) but also because of its large-scale environmental consequences: it is capable of traveling over great distances through the atmosphere and of bio-accumulating in the environment (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017). According to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (2017), ASGM is the greatest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions, releasing between 700 and 1,600 tons of mercury per year into the environment (Black et al., 2017; Rajaee et al., 2015; Seccatore et al., 2014; Smith, 2019).

Although an impressive body of literature has already documented the many struggles miners are facing in ASGM (Malehase, Daso, & Okonkwo, 2017; S. Spiegel, 2016; S. J. Spiegel et al., 2018; S. Spiegel, Keane, Metcalf, & Veiga, 2015; Tschakert & Singha, 2007) and although the associated use of mercury has caught global attention for decades (Hilson &

Clifford, 2010; McQuilken, 2016; Smith, 2019), the frequent use of the chemical still persists (Esdaile, 2018) and conditions do not seem to improve (Childs, 2008; Clifford, 2014; Hilson, 2006; Sippl, 2015; Sousa et al., 2011).

The explanations for the continuing use of mercury seem to be manifold and they illustrate the complexity of the issue. Whereas a lot of studies and projects already exist on topics such as suitable technological alternatives (Childs, 2008; Hirons, 2011; Smith, 2019; Teschner et al., 2017; Tschakert & Singha, 2007), awareness-raising about the effects of mercury amongst miners (Clifford, 2014; Davies, 2014; Hilson, 2009; Hinton et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2016; Veiga & Marshall, 2017; Zolnikov, 2012) or the formalization of the largely illegal sector (Marshall & Veiga, 2017; Sippl, 2015; Spiegel, 2016; Spiegel et al., 2015; Verbrugge, 2017), only little knowledge exists on mercury trade dynamics: neither through which channels the chemical is sold nor under what circumstances it is bought. Moreover, it is argued that the illicit flows of mercury are often directly linked with regional gold supply chains, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of mercury and gold trade which is difficult to break (Hilson, 2006; Hunter, 2019; Maponga & Ngorima, 2003; Smith, 2019; UNIDO, 2019; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014; Lassen, Maag, Jønsson, & Sarunday, 2016). As a result, efforts

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to reduce mercury use and trade also require an in-depth understanding of the interlinkage between the gold and the mercury market. Such trade dynamics significantly hamper the transition towards a mercury-free ASGM sector (Smith, 2019) and these aspects have to be considered in order to deal with issues around health concerns and environmental degradation related to mercury pollution (Spiegel et al., 2018; Tschakert & Singha, 2007).

In addition to this empirical research gap, the claim has been made that political ecology – looking at power relations concerning the access to and control over resources – tends to generally overlook extractive sectors (Bebbington, 2012). This is even more the case in the field of ASGM (Horowitz, 2015; Bedi, 2013; Perreault, 2013). This Master’s thesis will, thus, draw upon a theory of access by Ribot and Peluso (2003) which aims at conceptualizing power over access to natural resources, and extend it to the analysis of mercury use in ASGM. Whereas the framework commonly looks at the winners and losers in regard to the extraction of a resource, its application here will be slightly adapted. First, by taking a market access perspective, the Master’s thesis does not only assess how supply chain actors profit from gold and mercury trade but it also analyses how the interactions of the two markets influence the use of mercury as an extractive method. Second, by looking at access to capital the Master’s thesis examines how financially strong actors affect those trade dynamics on ASGM sites by providing the necessary capital and shifting ASGM-typical risks along the supply chain. The precise hypotheses and research questions are summarized in chapter 4.5.

Given both the empirical and theoretical gaps in the literature, this Master’s thesis’ goals are two-fold. First, it contributes to a better understanding of power dynamics in the mercury and gold supply chain which is arguably crucial in order to move towards a mercury-free ASGM sector. Second, it modestly expands the field of political ecology, and particularly access perspectives, into a domain which has remained understudied so far.

The study area for this research project is located in Burkina Faso – a country which has experienced ASGM since the 1980s (Luning, 2006) and which is one of the biggest African gold exporters – but on which only very little knowledge exists on the topic and even less on its gold and mercury supply chains.

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2. Mercury in ASGM: extractive process and trade dynamics

2.1 Introduction to ASGM

There is no internationally agreed definition of the term artisanal mining (ILO, 1999).

However, according to the UN, ASGM “is gold mining conducted by individual miners or small enterprises with limited capital investment and production” (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017, p.1). It mainly occurs in the rural parts of 81 developing countries, which often offer few other employment opportunities (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017). ASGM is, hence, an important way to sustain people’s livelihoods (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018; Hinton et al., 2003; Sangaré et al., 2016). Additionally to the estimated 15 million¹ artisanal miners (Black et al., 2017;

Seccatore et al., 2014), around 5 million woman and children indirectly depend on these mining practices as a source of income (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018). Whereas capital-intensive industrial large-scale gold mining (LSGM) accounts for most of global gold production, low- tech and labour-intensive artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) produces a total of around 20%² (600t/year) and employs 90% of the workforce within the global gold mining sector (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017).

Despite its potential positive economic aspects such as employment and the generation of financial flows (Salo et al., 2016), ASGM is the most rudimentary branch of the mining sector (Hilson, 2006) and it comes with severe social and environmental impacts at multiple levels:

precarious working and living conditions, poor health and safety records, child labour, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, tax evasion, deforestation and pollution are only some of the issues associated with ASGM (Elmes et al., 2014; Hammond et al., 2007; Hilson &

Clifford, 2010; Pieth, 2019).

2.2 The “mercury problem”: a matter of technologies?

In addition to the above-mentioned challenges, the critical use of mercury as an extractive tool has gained increasing attention from the scientific community, international institutions as well as governments over the last couple of decades (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018; Hilson &

1 Other sources of information estimate different values up to 19 million (Steckling et al., 2017).

2 Other sources of information estimate different values within a range of 12% (Seccatore et al.,

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Clifford, 2010; Ikingura & Akagi, 1996; Pfeiffer et al., 1989; van Straaten, 2000; WHO, 2016):

development as well as research institutions have undertaken considerable efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of mercury in ASGM. In this context, the most comprehensive undertaking so far to control the trade, use and emissions of mercury has been the Minamata Convention, which calls for the establishment of individual national action plans in order to implement concrete measures: it entered into force on 16^th August 2017 and has so far been signed by 128 parties and ratified by 110 (Minamata Convention on Mercury, 2017). Article 7 of the Convention requires the countries to “take steps to reduce, and where feasible eliminate, the use of mercury and mercury compounds in, and the emissions and releases to the environment of mercury from, such mining and processing.” (p. 25).

However, difficulties with controlling emissions persist and it is unclear yet whether the proposed measures will actually show positive effects on the ground.

2.2.1 Technical background: the gold extraction process in ASGM

Several steps are required to extract gold from the rock (ore), as shown in Figure 1. Steps 1 to 4 are purely mechanical, followed by steps 5 to 8 which involve the use of mercury.

Chemical leaching (step 8) also involves mercury as cyanide solubilizes mercury residues in the tailings and releases them into the environment either directly or else indirectly through drainage from unsecured tailing ponds (Veiga et al., 2009; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014). Steps 9 and 10 may also further liberate mercury but they are usually not done by the miners themselves but by processing centres or gold shops.

Whereas miners typically target rocks that contain around 20 grams of gold per ton, the recoverable grade³ varies between 20% and 95% of total grade, depending on the chosen ASGM processing technique and its efficiency (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017).

3 The term “grade” refers to the quantity of gold in the ore (= in the rocks or sediments containing

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Figure 1: My own illustration of the different steps within the gold extraction process in ASGM, based on O’Neill and Telmer (2017).

2.2.2 Health and environmental impacts of mercury

Mercury has both severe impacts on human health as well as on the environment. Whereas negative health impacts associated with ASGM also include more immediate dangers such as rock falls or respiration problems in the shafts (Amankwah et al., 2010; O’Neill & Telmer, 2017; Tschakert & Singha, 2007), mercury has important mid- to long-term effects:

especially during the amalgamation und burning process (see steps 5 and 7 on Figure 1), the workers inhale considerable amounts of elemental mercury (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014;

Esdaile & Chalker, 2018; Tomicic et al., 2011). Moreover, the entire mining communities are exposed to mercury as the chemical spreads by wind and adheres to the surfaces of walls, floors and clothing (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014). Furthermore, by touching mercury or the amalgam (especially during the process of squeezing, see Figure 1 step 6), the chemical can penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014). Several studies have already identified high mercury levels in the blood or urine of miners throughout ASGM sites in Latin America, Asia and Africa (Gibb & O’Leary, 2014; Kristensen et al., 2014).

Immediate symptoms of mercury exposure include tiredness, depression, nervousness and irritability (WHO, 2016) and symptoms such as sleep disruption, memory loss, muscle

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tremors and altered personality may appear at a later stage (Clarkson et al., 2003). As the kidneys and central nervous system are the most frequently affected (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014; Asano et al., 2000), mercury is particularly threatening for unborn babies and children as their brain and nervous system have not fully developed yet (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014;

Esdaile & Chalker, 2018).

Concerning mercury releases into the environment, pollution takes place at various levels, such as air, water and soil, and poses a serious threat to food and water supplies (Bose- O’Reilly et al., 2016; Diringer et al., 2015; Gibb & O’Leary, 2014; O’Neill & Telmer, 2017;

Reichelt-Brushett et al., 2017). Communities near ASGM sites are directly affected by the improperly managed or recycled quantities of water used for gold processing, as the inhabitants depend on the same water resources for hygiene, drinking water or cooking (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017). In agriculture, critical mercury uptake in rice near ASGM sites has been documented, for example (Bose-O’Reilly et al., 2016), which highlights the need to better understand mercury uptake in plants in order to mitigate crop contamination (Patra &

Sharma, 2000). Mercury can also be easily bio-accumulated in fish (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014; WHO, 2016) or algae (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018), and it thus damages not only terrestrial but also maritime ecosystems, including food chains and biodiversity (Esdaile &

Chalker, 2018). Lastly, tailing processing negatively affects the environment as it results in unnaturally high loads of suspended sediments in water bodies, inducing changes in circulation, fish migration or nutrient balance (O’Neill & Telmer, 2017).

2.2.3 Potential cleaner technologies

Increasing the efficiency of amalgamation practices as well as better protecting miners from mercury exposure can be seen as a first step towards a more sustainable ASGM sector (Artisanal Gold Council, 2014). In particular, the use of retorts is a widely discussed topic:

these devices capture mercury vapours and turn them back into liquid mercury, thus reducing mercury inhalation (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014).

Although retorts seem to be an attractive solution not only from a health but also from a recycling perspective, their application has met with limited success so far for various reasons (Amankwah et al., 2010; Hilson, 2006; Tschakert & Singha, 2007).

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In addition to the optimization of current practices, it is argued that mining without the use of mercury is possible as it is already done in formalized and regulated gold mining (Hinton et al., 2003). Several gravity concentration methods such as sluices and shaking tables, jigs, gold savers and centrifugal concentrators are potentially available for ASGM (Amankwah et al., 2010; Esdaile & Chalker, 2018; Teschner et al., 2017), of which some partially and some even entirely replace the process of mercury amalgamation (Pieth, 2019; Veiga, Angeloci- Santos, et al., 2014).

However, measures such as legally restricting or banning mercury from ASGM have shown little success (Hilson, 2006; Sousa et al., 2011; Spiegel et al., 2018) and they may even be counterproductive by potentially enhancing black market transactions and further criminalizing miners (Malehase et al., 2017; Spiegel, 2016; Spiegel et al., 2015, 2018;

Tschakert & Singha, 2007). This is even more the case when miners are not aware of existing mercury-free alternatives or do not have any technical and financial support to use them.

If miners are to adopt cleaner practices, it is generally important for there to be an obvious financial gain (Hinton et al., 2003; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014). The alternatives should therefore be inexpensive and require modest capital investments, show superior rates of gold recovery compared to mercury amalgamation and be based on simple equipment (Amankwah et al., 2010; Esdaile & Chalker, 2018). Further, the technique should not be complicated to learn, not rely on extensive technical support and where chemical compounds are used, they should be relatively safe and generate non-hazardous and biodegradable waste (Esdaile & Chalker, 2018).

Capacity building, education and the presence of trainers facilitate the successful introduction of new approaches (McDaniels et al., 2010; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014). This should ideally be done by people from a similar cultural background as the miners themselves (Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014). Once a few individuals have adopted alternatives, it can be assumed that the practice will spread naturally as miners tend to copy their peers if their methods seem to be more promising (Amankwah et al., 2010).

Despite the potential technological alternatives to mercury, the use of the chemical in ASGM still persists for various technical, economic, regulatory and cultural reasons (Amankwah et

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mercury seem to be manifold and illustrate the complexity of the issue. Whereas a lot of attention has been drawn to issues such as a lack of formalization of the sector (Marshall &

Veiga, 2017; Sippl, 2015; Spiegel, 2016; Spiegel et al., 2015; Verbrugge, 2017) or a lack of awareness of the effects of mercury by the ASGM community (Clifford, 2014; Davies, 2014;

Hilson, 2009; Hinton et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2016; Veiga & Marshall, 2017; Zolnikov, 2012), only little research has been conducted on the role of mercury in gold supply chains. This aspect will be further illustrated in the next chapter.

2.3 Beyond technologies: the role of mercury in gold supply chains

In addition to the above-mentioned hurdles towards a mercury-free ASGM sector, it is claimed that labour and power dynamics in mercury and gold supply chains may significantly hamper the transition towards a mercury-free ASGM sector (Fritz et al., 2016; Smith, 2019).

The provision of illegal goods such as mercury has proven to be an efficient way to secure supply chains and derive profits without directly engaging with the gold market (Hunter, 2019). By selling this illicit merchandise, criminal actors generate an income regardless of the profitability of the extractive activities (Hunter, 2019).

Given the importance of mercury in trade dynamics, Smith (2019) even argues that the introduction of mercury-free technologies is “only as effective as the supply chain allows them to be” (p. 653) and that unequal power relations in supply chains put miners in a position with “little to no control over the distribution, use and emissions of mercury” (p.

646).

However, there is a consensus that financial flows are highly intransparent and that only very little is known about trade routes and market structures within ASGM supply networks.

This is mainly due to the often illicit and criminal character of the sector in many parts of the world, highlighting challenges such as poor governance, corruption, money laundering and human exploitation along gold supply chains (Hunter, 2019; OECD, 2018; UNIDO, 2019).

Whereas trade dynamics of mercury are even less transparent than for gold itself, the informal and illicit flows of mercury are generally directly linked with regional gold trade: for example, it is known that gold buyers on ASGM sites are often the same people as the mercury providers, thus creating a self-reinforcing cycle of mercury and gold supply which is difficult to break (Hilson, 2006; Hunter, 2019; Lassen et al., 2016; Maponga & Ngorima,

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2003; Smith, 2019; UNIDO, 2019; Veiga, Angeloci-Santos, et al., 2014). As a result, efforts to reduce mercury use and trade also require an in-depth understanding of the interlinkage between gold and mercury trade flows.

This Master’s thesis therefore takes up the call from both the practice as well as the literature to better study these supply chain dynamics in order to move towards a mercury- free ASGM sector. The main research goal is to contribute to the closing of this empirical research gap by shedding light on mercury and gold supply chain dynamics and how they hamper the abandonment of the chemical as an extractive tool in the case of Burkina Faso.

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3. Contextualization: ASGM in Burkina Faso

As the characteristics of ASGM vary considerably between geographic and cultural contexts (Hirons, 2011), this chapter will provide the specific circumstances under which ASGM takes place in Burkina Faso.

3.1 The relevance of Burkina Faso as a study area for trade dynamics in ASGM Burkina Faso, Africa’s fourth largest gold producer, has been chosen as a target country as only very little literature exists on the ASGM sector so far and even less on the associated use of mercury. Studies on ASGM in Africa can be mainly found on Ghana (eg. Hilson, 2010;

Nyame & Blocher, 2010; Tschakert, 2009; Tschakert & Singha, 2007) or countries such as Zimbabwe (eg. Metcalf & Veiga, 2012; Tunhuma, Kelderman, Love, & Uhlenbrock, 2007) and Tanzania (eg. Childs, 2014; Fisher, 2007; Kitula, 2006). However, mining practices are very heterogeneous because of their varying geographic and cultural contexts and (Hirons, 2011) and Lanzano and di Balme (2014) thus argue, that it important to design solutions for specific local contexts.

Concerning studies on mercury in ASGM in Burkina Faso, only the World Bank (2016) delivers in-depth information on technical aspects of mercury use in a country report that is part of an ensemble of analyses of ASGM in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further, there are a small number of studies on the release of mercury and cyanide (Black et al., 2017;

Razanamahandry et al., 2016; Tomicic et al., 2011), one study assessing miners’ perception and knowledge about mercury pollution (Sana et al., 2017) and some general technical and socio-economic overviews on ASGM in Burkina Faso (Gueye, 2001; Jaques et al., 2006).

Some Burkina Faso-specific ASGM literature is also available on topics such as its effects on the distribution of wealth (Black et al., 2017; Luning, 2008; Sisso & Beaumais, 2018;

Werthmann, 2003a; Zabsonré et al., 2018), access to resources and formalization processes (Côte & Korf, 2018; di Balme & Lanzano, 2013; Luning, 2006, 2008; Werthmann, 2017), local governance on mining sites (Lanzano & di Balme, 2014; Ouedraogo & Mundler, 2019;

Sangaré et al., 2016; Werthmann, 2003b, 2010) and social movements (Capitant, 2017). In addition, some reports from international institutions contain information relating to human rights violations in ASGM (e.g. Fastenopfer & Brot für alle, 2016) and trading routes of

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Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2017; OECD, 2018; Public Eye, 2015). However, no studies on Burkina Faso have assessed the trade dynamics of gold and mercury in ASGM on a micro-scale so far and even less is known about how they potentially interact.

3.2 General characteristics of ASGM in Burkina Faso

ASGM has been taking place in Burkina Faso since the 1980s droughts (Luning, 2006), with recent variations in the intensity of the activity depending on gold price levels (Bazillier &

Girard, 2017). The mines usually operate during eight to nine months per year as activities are suspended during the rainy season (OECD, 2018).

Whereas some sources estimate that around 400,000 people of the country’s rural population directly work in the ASGM sector (UNEP, 2013), others estimate the numbers at around one million or even more (Lanzano & di Balme, 2014; Public Eye, 2015; Zabsonré et al., 2018). Assuming that 700,000 people – a number between the two extremes – are directly involved in ASGM (Bazillier & Girard, 2017; Sana et al., 2017) and taking the one artisanal miner for five dependents multiplier used by the UN (UNECA, 2016), it would mean that ASGM sustains the living of over three million people (Bazillier & Girard, 2017), which corresponds to a little less than 17% of the country’s population.⁴

As respects existing mining sites, the National Institute of Statistics and Demography estimates that there are between 500 to 700 all over the country (OECD, 2018), but only 221 sites are officially registered and have received ASGM exploitation permits (Lassen et al., 2016). These authorizations indicate approximately where mining takes place but no information is provided on who is mining when and how much (Bazillier & Girard, 2017).

In the context of ASGM in Burkina Faso, it has to be noted that the country’s constantly worsening security situation is affecting the sector significantly (Crisis Group, 2019): the gold mines are an attractive source of funding and recruitment for armed groups in areas where the state is weak or even absent. Two recent attacks in October and November 2019 caused the deaths of more than sixty civilians working in the gold sector (Crisis Group, 2019): the

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first one targeted an ASGM site in the north-west of the country and the second one took place near an industrial site in the east of the country. The security situation also significantly impacts the market structure of the sector, which will be discussed in chapter 6 and 7.

3.2 Formal and informal governance on ASGM sites

Despite their informal and illegal status, ASGM communities in Burkina Faso (but also in other parts of the world) have well-defined, often extremely hierarchical structures (Sangaré et al., 2016) and high levels of organization (Fisher, 2007; Jaques et al., 2006). These dynamics are shaped by both markets and traditional power structures (Sangaré et al., 2016). The key person on ASGM sites – legal or not – is usually the pit owner, who provides food and other basic provisions for his team of gold diggers for the entire extraction period (Lanzano & di Balme, 2014).

Ouedraogo & Mundler (2019) generally characterize local governance on ASGM sites in Burkina Faso as a continuum from flexible to rigid forms: whereas the flexible forms of governance are based on collective powers between entities such as artisanal miners’

unions, customary authorities and landowners (Teschner, 2014; Lanzano & di Balme, 2014;

Luning, 2010), the more rigid forms often involve the organization led by a site manager (patron) responsible for running the mining site (Sangaré et al., 2016; Werthmann, 2003b).

These more rigid forms may also be enforced by trading companies who secured legal extraction permits and who established order on the site by collaborating with former miners or private security officers (di Balme & Lanzano, 2013; Luning, 2010). These companies are then in charge of aspects such as the management of relations between miners and indigenous communities or local government institutions, the organization of pre-financing loans for miners as well as security and safety matters on the mining sites (Ouedraogo & Mundler, 2019).

On a state level, the sector was officially regulated through the Burkinabe Precious Metals Counter (CBMP) until 2006, holding a monopoly over the commercialization of gold and responsible for the supervision and organization of the ASGM sector (Lanzano & di Balme, 2014). However, under the growing pressure to liberalize the sector, more and more private trading companies were authorized and created as of the late 1990s. In order to regulate the

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sector, a national mining code was established in 2003 and revised in 2015 (Ouedraogo &

Mundler, 2019; Werthmann, 2017). Currently, a total number of 63 trading companies are officially registered and operating in the country,⁵ of which the two biggest are called SOMIKA and Sav’Or.

In order to regain state control over the sector, the National Agency for ASGM (in short:

Aneemas) was created in 2015 as part of the Ministry of Mines, Quarries and Energy. It is officially responsible for the regulation of gold extraction as well as exports. However, the role of the agency goes far beyond regaining control over the gold trade: it is also in charge of the monitoring of environmental issues, the improvement of infrastructures and the training of miners (Werthmann, 2017). The role of Aneemas and the efficiency of its activities will be further discussed in chapters 6 and 7.

3.3 Use of chemicals on ASGM sites

While the Ministry of Mines, Quarries and Energy assumes that all ASGM sites in Burkina Faso use mercury (Lassen et al., 2016), the frequency of cyanide use is less clear as it is a relatively recent development (Jaques et al., 2006; Lassen et al., 2016). Some sources indicate that only 5% of the sites include practices such as cyanidation (Lassen et al., 2016) but others estimate that it has become widespread nowadays (Razanamahandry et al., 2016). According to Lassen et al. (2016), one informant indicated that 19% of all mining sites have been extracting gold with cyanide in recent years. Where mercury is used in ASGM activities, 100% of the chemical is used for amalgamation from concentrate (see step 4 in chapter 2.2.1), burned over an open flame without using retorts or recycling mercury in other ways (Lassen et al., 2016).

Once the ore has been extracted from the shafts, it is taken to the nearby processing or dwelling areas, despite the legal requirement of a clear separation between those (OECD, 2018). The ore is then first treated with mercury while the remaining sand may be treated further in so called cyanide plots which are usually hidden in the forest. This double treatment increases the total gold recovery rate significantly: whereas the recovery rates are

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estimated to be less than 30% if only mercury is applied (Veiga et al., 2009), the rates after cyanidation of the tailings are estimated to be around 86 to 90% (Jaques et al., 2006).

3.4 Trade dynamics of gold

Burkina Faso extracts 60 tons of gold each year and is Africa’s fourth largest gold producer after Ghana, South Africa and Mali (Goldhub, 2019; UNIDO, 2019). By 2009, the export value of gold exceeded that of cotton for the first time, and in 2013, gold accounted for 71% of all export earnings (Harsch, 2017). Currently, it accounts for more than 12% of the national GDP (Black et al., 2017; Sisso & Beaumais, 2018). As regards total gold production from ASGM, actual numbers are imprecise and vary between 9.5 tons and 25 tons (16% and 41% of the national production, respectively) depending on the source (Hunter, 2019).

Along African gold supply chains, three main types of actors can generally be distinguished:

the gold diggers on the sites (including the pit owners), the local and regional buyers and the exporters (see Figure 2), by whom most of the gold is shipped to Dubai (Hunter, 2019).

Figure 2: Simplified representation of African gold supply chains. Source: Hunter (2019).

The price paid for gold increases as it gets closer to the international export hubs, with some gold miners receiving only about 50 – 60% of the international gold price (Hunter, 2019).

This is due firstly to the frequent existence of criminal actors who control territory and supply chains by force (Crisis Group, 2019; Global Initiative, 2017; Hunter, 2019). Secondly, the miners also receive low rates because of their lack of knowledge: buyers tend to exaggerate the percentage of weight loss during processing by claiming up to 20% of loss instead of four to seven percent (Hunter, 2019). According to the National Institute of Statistics and Demography, gold prices on ASGM sites in Burkina Faso vary little between regions and range between 24,500 FCFA (41 dollars) and 26,600 FCFA (45 dollars) per gram.

The lowest prices, around 20,000 FCFA (USD 33), have been recorded in the East Region of

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the country (INSD, 2017). In this context, evidence shows that private trading companies, which acquire legal permits, often manage to impose a monopoly over the sales of gold, although ASGM miners try to sell their gold to different trading posts or have it smuggled out of the country (Bazillier & Girard, 2017; Ouedraogo & Mundler, 2019).

In addition to low gold prices, site managers, landowners or license holders tend to secure the majority of profits, leaving miners with only little left to share among themselves (OECD, 2018). A typical informal pay-off rule (Teschner, 2014; Werthmann, 2017) based on tacit accords is that the pit owner often gets half of the ore sacks, keeping one back for the landowner and one for the site police, while the other half is divided between the diggers (OECD, 2018).

As for any country with an ASGM sector, it is estimated that a sizeable amount of gold in Burkina Faso is sold through unofficial channels beyond the reach of the state’s tax authorities (International Monetary Fund, 2014; Ouedraogo & Mundler, 2019; Public Eye, 2015). According to Werthmann (2017), around 50% is probably smuggled out of the country. Other sources estimate the amount to be up to seven tons, corresponding to 7/8 of total gold production from ASGM in Burkina Faso (Public Eye, 2015). One important reason for the high share of illegal exports may be that taxes on gold exports from Burkina Faso are particularly high compared to the neighbouring countries: whereas the tax on gold exports is 450,000 FCFA (USD 743⁶) per kilo and 200,000 FCFA (USD 330) if exported via the state, gold officially exported from Togo is only taxed 30,000 FCFA (USD 50) per kilo (OECD, 2018).

6 All the conversion from Central African Francs (FCFA) to US Dollars have been done based on a conversion rate of 0.0017 as of 01.12.2019.

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3.5 Trade dynamics of mercury

Whereas an estimated amount of 50 – 90 tons of mercury is estimated to be consumed in Burkina Faso every year, reported imports are far lower (Lassen et al., 2016): according to this global mercury assessment, the numbers vary between 25 and 46 tons per year. As for the uncertain amounts of mercury consumption, the trade routes of the chemical through Burkina Faso are also largely unknown to the administration (Global Initiative, 2018; Lassen et al., 2016). However, it is thought that mercury is mainly imported via Togo (port of Lomé)

or Ghana (ports of Tema and Takorady) (Lassen et al., 2016). Once in Burkina Faso, a considerable amount of mercury probably leaves the country again towards mining sites in the North of Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and even Senegal (see Figure 3). This makes Burkina Faso a regional linchpin for the mercury trade, with Burkinabe actors controlling mercury supply chains to a large extent (Global Initiative, 2018). As stated by agents of the state administration: “it’s a real mafia that manages the supply around the source of mercury in Burkina.”

According to Lassen et al. (2016), it is also known that, in order to avoid police control, traders transport containers from the ports of Togo and Ghana by truck, pickup truck, private cars or motorbikes on unpaved roads through the jungle or other unofficial routes.

Figure 3: Map of mercury and gold flows in West Africa. Source: Global Initiative, 2018.

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When customs confiscate bottles containing mercury, they either send the smuggler back to the country of origin with the mercury or, if the owner escapes, sell the impounded mercury to legal mercury dealers (Lassen et al., 2016). If the mercury arrives safely in Burkina Faso, it is stored in villages far away from major towns or cities after a journey of three days to two weeks through the country (Lassen et al., 2016). As with gold, mercury is frequently trafficked through illegal organizations, which possibly involve people at high administrative and political level, as well as Burkinabe emigrants who have been living in Ghana for decades (Lassen et al., 2016). In Burkina Faso, mercury is sold at prices between FCFA 40,000 – 80,000 (USD 66 – 132) per kilo, with price variations according to supply, demand and the destination (Lassen et al., 2016).

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4. Conceptual framework: ASGM from a political ecology perspective

The previous two chapters furnished the necessary empirical background concerning ASGM and the associated use and trade of mercury in general and in the case of Burkina Faso. The following section will provide the analytic tools for this Master’s thesis. Based on a political ecology approach focusing on power dynamics, this conceptual framework will help to better describe the trade dynamics of gold and mercury in ASGM supply chains.

4.1 Relevance of political ecology for ASGM

Political ecology frameworks are increasingly used in academic research in order to analyse conflicts around resource extraction (Spiegel, 2017). They typically address issues such as unequal power relations regarding access to and control over resources, the relation between marginalization and environmental degradation as well as the dominance of certain forms of knowledge and discourses over others (Robbins, 2011).

With regard to environmental discourses, political ecology argues that those are never socially neutral (Robbins, 2011) and that ecological arguments are always political-economic ones at once (Harvey, 1993). According to Foucault, a discourse is “a structure of interconnected concepts which makes parts and aspects of reality accessible, while hiding or veiling others” (Assche et al., 2017, p. 3). Each discourse takes thus a different perspective on the environment and its related resources (Feindt & Oels, 2005), highlighting certain relations between particular concepts and overlooking others (Assche et al., 2017). If a discourse ignores political aspects of natural resource management, it obscures existing decision-making and power relations (Assche et al., 2017).

Highly technocratic perspectives tend to prevail in such apolitical discourses (Raik & Wilson, 2006), which is also valid in the case of ASGM: for a long time, the scientific discourse had been solely focusing on mercury pollution as a technical problem which requires a purely technical solution, omitting any broader socio-economic, cultural or political factors (Fritz et al., 2016; Hilson, 2006; Tschakert & Singha, 2007). However, attempts to introduce mercury- free technologies as well as mercury recovery systems have often met unexpected challenges and tend to fail for various reasons, partially illustrated in chapter 2.2.3. In this

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considered superior to knowledge articulated by the miners. Moreover, Hirons (2011, p. 5) highlights the importance of local contexts, which do not allow the implementation of

“generic technocratic blueprint solutions that can work all over the world.”

Subsequent to the claim that extractive sectors had been chronically understudied in political ecology (Bebbington, 2012), research in the field started to expand a few years ago (Allen, 2017; Andrews & McCarthy, 2014; Williams & Billon, 2017). However, there is far more literature on political ecology about LSGM (Horowitz, 2015; Bedi, 2013; Perreault, 2013) than there is about ASGM, although the latter is widely linked to subjects studied in the field of political ecology (Campbell, 2016; Hilson & Maconachie, 2017; Huggins et al., 2017). It is even argued that the use of mercury in ASGM is a key element in the discourse of condemnation, marginalization and criminalization of unregistered miners who irresponsibly use the chemical to extract gold and recklessly pollute the environment (Hirons, 2011;

Tschakert & Singha, 2007). Thus there have been calls for an increased focus on unequal power relations, market dynamics and marginalization processes in order to deal with issues around health concerns and environmental degradation related to mercury pollution (Spiegel et al., 2018; Tschakert & Singha, 2007).

Analysing mercury through a political ecology lens may put the focus on issues that tend to be neglected in the mainstream discourse on ASGM, by taking into account market and power dynamics between actors on different scales. This perspective may further contribute to more creative and dynamic solutions to the pressing issues the sector has been facing for a long time.

4.2 Power theories in political ecology

The notion of power, which does not suit any simplistic definition, has been the subject of debate for decades (Clegg, 1989; Wartenberg, 1990; Winter, 1996). According to Escobar (1984, p. 381), it is essential to acknowledge the “manifold structure of power” in order to shed light on “new schemes of politicization of individuals, intellectuals, workers and oppressed groups on whom power is exercised”, especially as power structures exist in any forms of social interaction (Feindt & Oels, 2005). This argumentation is based on Foucault’s statement that “power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere” (Foucault, 1998, p. 93). Also within political ecology theories,

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power concepts are ubiquitous and usually range from agent-centred perspectives to poststructuralist perspectives to neo-Marxist perspectives (Svarstad et al., 2018), which will be presented by the following.

4.2.1 Actor-centred power perspectives

From an actor-centred point of view, power is something being exercised by individuals, in contrast to the notion of power as a “force that may pass through people without consciousness or accountability” (Svarstad et al., 2018, p. 352). Max Weber (1947) significantly contributed to actor-centred power theories by defining power as the ability to carry out one’s will despite any resistance from others. Within actor-centred conceptualizations there is the common distinction between two dimensions, to which Raik et al. (2008) refer as “power as coercion” and “power as constraint”.

The first and rather intuitive dimension, power as coercion, is usually discussed in the form of one person’s power over another (Raik et al., 2008). Power, hence, is “something that elite individuals or groups possess, which they use to control the thoughts and actions of others” (Heizmann & Olsson, 2015, p. 756 – 757). In other terms, it is something that some actors have and others do not (Raik et al., 2008). The second dimension, power as constraint, was first introduced by Bachrach & Baratz (1970) and refers to the prevention of an action or a decision-making: “Power is […] exercised when A devotes his energies to creating or reinforcing social and political values and institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to public consideration of only those issues which are comparatively innocuous to A” (Bachrach & Baratz, 1970, p. 7). In other words, actor A may inhibit another actor B to bring to public discussion any topics which potentially jeopardize A’s interests. Whereas for the first dimension, power can be considered as the active control over decision-making, the second dimension describes the control over the inaction on decision-making (Raik et al., 2008).

4.2.2 Poststructuralist power perspectives

From a poststructuralist perspective, individuals exercise power through the social structures in which they are embedded (Raik et al., 2008). The question, thus, is not “who has the power?” or “where does it reside?” but “through which practices, techniques and

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stated that “power is not something that is acquired, seized or shared” (Foucault, 1981, p.

94) and not “a privilege that one might possess” but “a network of relations, constantly in tension, in activity” (Foucault, 1977, p. 26 – 27). This fundamentally relational understanding of power (Foucault, 1977, 1978; Foucault et al., 1972; Foucault & Gordon, 1980) focuses on how power becomes apparent when it is exercised rather than being associated with particular actors or institutions (Townley, 1993). According to Raik et al. (2008), this form of power is expressed in the production of consent in which “societal forces shape individual preferences, and this shaping process works to justify and maintain the current system of power” (Raik et al., p. 734). In other words, power is about “controlling the thoughts and desires of individuals in order to ensure their compliance” (Lukes, 2005, p. 27).

Svarstad et al. (2018) further distinguish between three poststructuralist power perspectives: discursive power, governmentality and biopower, which have all been shaped by Michel Foucault. The first perspective, discursive power, refers to processes in which certain actors produce discourses and manage to make other actors reproduce them (Svarstad et al., 2018). The second perspective, governmentality, is widely used as a key element to assess power dynamics in regards to environmental governance and the way governments manage to make citizens act according to their priorities (Foucault, 1991).

Lastly, a biopower perspective, which has gained much less attention in the literature than the other two perspectives, reveals how governmental concerns such as public health have emerged in order to secure lives (Svarstad et al., 2018). This view is based on Foucault’s definition of biopower as the power to make live or let die and it has been addressed in various academic disciplines on studies such as famine, infectious diseases or climate change adaptation (Svarstad et al., 2018).

4.2.3 Neo-Marxist power perspectives

Neo-Marxist power perspectives, focusing on different types of inequalities produced by global capitalism, are rarely pointed out as such but often directly or indirectly influence power concepts in political ecology (Svarstad et al., 2018). As for actor-centred perspectives, human agency is the centre of power analysis but actions are limited and for the most part produced by historically established structures (Svarstad et al., 2018). Moreover, human